When something works and generates economic activity, you try to bottle it.

In a nutshell, that's what arguments boil down to about the future of the elegant, and effective, Pure Michigan tourism promotion campaign waged nationally for the past year by the Michigan Travel Commission.

Well, there is the cost, which some would argue is the nut itself in a cash-strapped state: $30 million a year to spread the word in radio and television ads extolling Michigan's unique charms.

That funding is up for a vote in a Legislature in the mood to cut, rather than to spend. If the bills (5017, 5018, 5088 and 5089 in the House; and 619 and 620 in the Senate) fail to pass, funding for the tourism campaign would drop to about $5 million per year.

That would deal a serious blow to a campaign, carried along on evocative prose read by Michigan-born actor Tim Allen, that reached all 50 states in the past year.

The Pure Michigan ad campaign was a winner on many levels. Forbes Magazine this summer didn't just praise it -- it declared it one of the 10 best travel promotion campaigns of all time.

More importantly, it did what it set out to do: It brought tourism dollars to a state that desperately needed the infusion to steady an economy wracked by declines in population and manufacturing jobs.

Jerry Preston, president of the Flint Area Convention and Visitors Bureau and a member of the Michigan Travel Commission, said that almost 60 percent of tourism-based businesses surveyed reported an increase in out-of-state guests this summer.

In this region, Preston noted that major events like the Buick Open and Crim races saw "tremendous" increases in attendance, presumably aided by direct Pure Michigan promotional support.

Citing independent research, Preston says that every $1 Michigan spends on out-of-state tourism promotion generates nearly $41 in total spending by tourists in our state, and that same dollar generates $2.86 in new sales tax revenue for Michigan.

If you think that sounds like lobbying, you're right. The tourism industry, to its credit, is taking the Pure Michigan success story public in an effort to settle the debate over the merits of the campaign before it becomes a budget expediency in some 11th hour at our Capitol.

Advocates for the continued funding also have wisely identified potential revenue sources: A $2.50 use tax on cars rented to out-of-state visitors, and the diversion of part of the state sales tax levied by hotels and resorts.

That latter funding source may be a sticking point for critics who say that every sales tax dollar is needed for essential state services.

The first rebuttal from Pure Michigan advocates may come in a few months, when Travel Michigan produces the results of research that are expected to show that the increased business drummed up by Pure Michigan will replace that sales tax investment with fresh spending from out-of-state tourists.

The second rebuttal is more simple: What else do you have?

That is, what does Michigan have cooking right now that draws national attention in the most positive light, that is proven to work and that research shows replaces every dollar invested 40-fold?

Car sales, God love 'em, are a shaky foundation.

The green economy and high tech are seductive, but speculative.

Our lakes and our forests, our beaches and our fall colors, they're still blowing visitors away, just like they have for almost 450 years.

That's a track record you can count on, and that we should build on -- not in spite of, but because of, the economic hardships we are in.